To Kill a Mockingbird
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A Lesson Learned.
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The popularity of the book demonstrates the importance of justice in our culture. The book is important not only because it helped to change an entire way of thinking about racial inequality, but it exposed the one glaring flaw in our system of justice, the jury system. Twelve people were presented irrefutable evidence of a man's innocence, and yet convicted him out of prejudice.This continues today, as is shown repeatedly when DNA evidence proves the innocence of hundreds of death row inmates.
I love this book! I've read it numerous times with students, and it never grows old for me. I just fell in love with the witty narrator Scout and her brother Jem. I will also admit to a tiny book crush on Atticus as well ;) Atticus in court truly encompasses how our justice system should work and the brutal outcome of the jury shows us how the scales of justice really are not level.
This book is my ALL time favourite book . . I read it first when I was 11 . . I was given it by my teacher at school who thought I would like it . . . there are so many lessons we can learn from this book. Obviously aside from racial issues there is just the simple issue of how we treat people every day . . . .
Mathis wrote: "In all honesty, it took me forever to get around to this book. Everytime I attempted to read this book I always managed to toss it to the side and pick up something a little more upbeat. But after ..."A compassionate, intelligent, perceptive white person who had never before written a novel captured a white glimpse into a small but representative segment of black culture in a way that lit fires in the minds of millions of readers and helped give momentum to a movement already in motion. If a black writer could have made that impact they would have, but it took an inexperienced middle class white college dropout with a burning desire to expose injustice. Maybe it took a white writer to push the right buttons or avoid pushing the wrong ones. Maybe it took someone schooled in the law to portray the injustice in a compelling way. Whatever the combination, it worked. Boy did it work. That's not to say that Lee didn't have help. She had plenty of support from her editor, her friends and her family. But the book had her vision, her outrage, her courage, fire, talent and determination to see it through.
What Harper Lee did that was so outstanding was to demonstrate or model for white Americans that it was okay, heroic even, to express outrage in public at other whites for their bigotry and injustice. She shamed them. Only a white writer could have been a model for other whites. Black leaders and writers were expressing their outrage, and that was effective, but white leadership in the realm of racial injustice was lacking. Lee's courageous novel provided a behavior breakthrough that unleashed a pent-up storm of outrage and guilt in the white community.
Jenny wrote: "Mathis, I have to respectfully disagree. There were many, many authors writing about the African American experience in the 1960s and much earlier. There was an entire society dedicated to it, the ..."To Kill a Mockingbird is a well written book. It is now part of the high school English literature canon and is required reading. Its flaw is that the blacks in the novel lack agency. Atticus Finch is trying to save Tom Robinson while the blacks in the town stand by humbly. Yet this is the same time that blacks took control of their own destiny by sitting in, marching, and speaking out against the injustice of segregation. Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and many other blacks fought for and won their human and constitutional rights.
David wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Mathis, I have to respectfully disagree. There were many, many authors writing about the African American experience in the 1960s and much earlier. There was an entire society dedicat..."Yes, these were the leaders who had the most courage, for they risked their lives repeatedly. The true hero risks him or herself for a cause. It's a story that needs to be told and retold so that the lessons are not forgotten.
This is my favorite book! I read it every September. Every year, when I get to August, I get so excited thinking about reading it again. I always find something new to appreciate every time I re-read the story.
This book is so much deeper than just a good book,which it is. The fact that an eight year old girl looks around her and sees "People are people" is astounding, and can really truly only be captured by a child. Scout is a great narrator because she's a bit biased, but she's fun and thoughtful, even when she doesn't know she's being these things. The fact that the main conflict in the novel is Tom's accused rape of Mayella and the hate it brings to Maycomb county is a great story on its own. However, To Kill a Mockingbird is also about growing up, learning the world around you, and understanding that just because something has always been doesn't mean it should always be. Harper Lee does an outstanding job of weaving all of these difficult ideas into one compelling novel. It's been a few years since I have read this, but I think I'm going to pick it up again! Thank you Harper Lee!
Amanda wrote: "This book is so much deeper than just a good book,which it is. The fact that an eight year old girl looks around her and sees "People are people" is astounding, and can really truly only be capture..."Well said, Amanda! Can't wait to start it again in September (if I can wait that long.)
I have to say I love the book too, always have since reading it at school! I may be somewhat biased as i am now training as a criminal solicitor but i think the book should definitely be read by all lawyers.
I agree that Atticus is almost our (or at least my) notion of justice personified. the case he makes in court (although filled with the usual un-lifelike drama) encapsulates the bases upon which our justice system should be founded; innocent until proven guilty and equality before the law (the rule of law as we call it in england - although perhaps that is only a term used by us stuffy lawyers!)
I also greatly enjoy reading from Scout's perspective, although being a lawyer sometimes I do want to go with Atticus instead. being a child she allows us to step aside from the case and take a walk around the american deep south and get a feel for the time and people, I often find children can be incredibly perceptive of adult behaviour.
Scouts realisation of a shades of grey world is really a poignant event in the book for me, its a learning curve most practitioners have almost immediately (if not before starting practice) when you find yourself able to empathise with a client your defending (some are much more guilty than Tom) or after the first time you discover a witness has lied to you!
as a practitioner it can at times be a somewhat humorous exercise in self-reflection, as i expect it is for others.
for me the book raises issues primarily about learning to empathise with others and growing wiser, allowing me to reminisce of my own childhood and empathetic milestones i encountered as well as allowing me to reflect upon the greater depth of understanding in this regard i am still gaining as an adult.
Although the core of the case is somewhat "chocolate box" as Tom is a lighter than darker shad of grey, for me the book is as much a narrative of social history as it is a training manual in real life for would be lawyers.
David wrote: "Its flaw is that the blacks in the novel lack agency. Atticus Finch is trying to save Tom Robinson while the blacks in the town stand by humbly. Yet this is the same time that blacks took control of their own destiny by sitting in, marching, and speaking out against the injustice of segregation. Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and many other blacks fought for and won their human and constitutional rights...."I think you’re missing an important point. Yes, TKAM was *published* in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, but the setting of the story is the early 1930’s. The Ku Klux Klan was alive and well, and civil rights for African Americans hadn’t yet found traction. The blacks in the town behaved as they would have back then. Had the story taken place in the 1950’s, then you’d have an argument.
Monty J wrote: "Mathis wrote: "In all honesty, it took me forever to get around to this book. Everytime I attempted to read this book I always managed to toss it to the side and pick up something a little more upb..."Well said, Monty.
In the beginning there is no evil one, there is only evil thoughts. That thoughts converts one to evil...I think the little girl is "The Bad Guy".
To Kill A Mockingbird, like a true piece of literary fiction, has got multiple themes. The "plot", I agree, is about the rape case. But it seems to me that the author wants to project something much more subtle - its more about how various people in the county respond to the whole issue and how Scott is drinking it all in. Its about a father, whose thoughts are clearly ahead of his time.Its about understanding one's neighbour - about how most conflicts could have been avoided if we all had just spared a moment to think how the other person might be feeling. And the fact that most people are real nice, when you finally see them.
The small things that Atticus does, and not merely his big speech, are of really great importance.
Sydney wrote: "David wrote: "Its flaw is that the blacks in the novel lack agency. Atticus Finch is trying to save Tom Robinson while the blacks in the town stand by humbly. Yet this is the same time that blacks ..."I agree, this is a bit before the equal rights movement started in ernest. Blacks could not help Atticus, or at least safely.
Daniel wrote: "Sydney wrote: "David wrote: "Its flaw is that the blacks in the novel lack agency. Atticus Finch is trying to save Tom Robinson while the blacks in the town stand by humbly. Yet this is the same ti..."Favorite quote: "Miss Jean Louise. Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing."
The agency that blacks had at the time was suppressed and needs more visibility in American literature. We need some writers to catch fire and light up the world. Black writers and white.
David wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Mathis, I have to respectfully disagree. There were many, many authors writing about the African American experience in the 1960s and much earlier. There was an entire society dedicat..."The book was PUBLISHED in the early 1960s, but the story took place during the 1930s, when Jim Crow was very much still alive and Martin Luther King was a small child living in the midst of it.
Don't judge the situations or characters by today's standards! An earthquake occurred in the 1960s in our nation. These ideas were brand new to the movers and shakers of that time. If you weren't alive then, you have no idea how things have shifted since Mockingbird was published. You may not like the racial behavior of those days, but your not liking it will not change history. Blacks did "stand by humbly" for the most part because that was the world they lived in. It changed over a long period because a few stood up, and others stood with them and eventually so many stood that there was a movement.
This is my favorite novel of all time. It is brilliant and brave.
Judy wrote: "David wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Mathis, I have to respectfully disagree. There were many, many authors writing about the African American experience in the 1960s and much earlier. There was an entire s...""This is my favorite novel of all time. It is brilliant and brave." --So true. Incredibly brave on Nell Harper Lee's part.
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The story entails a handicap Negro man, being accused of raping a white girl, in the segregated south - Alabama. Two kids, whom are the children of an attorney, happens to become intrigued with the rape case and get involved.
All in all, I thought it was interesting that a white author could write and capture the black experience in America during the 1960s. I mean, no other white writer was doing it. So I will assume that's why the book was so highly revered - for this merit; the same goes for "Uncle Tom's Cabin" from Harriet Beecher. This book influences people to think about equal rights.